Transmission protocols, such as SONET (Synchronous Optical Networking) and SDN (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy), transmit data in structured frames. These data frames are transmitted over an optical network in a serial data stream. A converting device, at the termination of the optical network converts the serial data stream to parallel data streams. Once converted, the parallel data streams are transferred by the converting device to a SONET/SDH framer at an Optical Carrier (OC) Level data rate.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.